ONE NATION UNDER GOD

With the advent over the last century of historical revisionism in America, and its attempts to remove God from our history books, I feel that it is time for us to go back to the beginnings of our history as a nation and discuss at length the Christian foundations of America. To do this we need to look at our nation's history not as just another secular recounting of facts, but to take the time to show how God has moved throughout history to bring about His will on the earth. For this reason, the history we will be discussing here will be based on three very important principles that most secular historians ignore, thus causing them to misunderstand the grand plan that God is carrying out here in America and among all the nations of the earth.

The first of these principles is that God, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, created the universe.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.-Genesis 1:1

This basic principle shows us that men were created with a certain purpose and destiny in mind by an Almighty God. We need to know just what it was that our founding fathers believed concerning this in able to understand if they shared this view. Benjamin Franklin stated very clearly where he stood in this area. "Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped. As to Jesus of Nazareth, I think the systems of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see."

American President Thomas Jefferson also made it clear concerning what he believed about this.

President George Washington also stated his position on the matter of God and the creation of the universe.

The view that the universe was created by God is clearly the position held by the American founding fathers and all Bible believing Christians throughout the ages, thus is one of the basic principles that will be held in our study of them.

The second principle that will be the basis for these studies is the view that the God who created the universe sees the future of the universe and mankind and that all of history is simply us moving forward towards that final destiny.

The Holy Scriptures teach that from before the foundation of the world God has prepared His kingdom (Matthew 25:34), known the prophets' blood would be shed (Luke 11:50), loved Jesus (John 17:24), chosen us (Ephesians 1:4), and finished His work (Hebrews 4:3). The Bible also states that, before the foundation of the world, Jesus has suffered (Hebrews 9:26), was foreordained to be the Lamb (I Peter 1:20), and to die (Revelation 13:8). It also states that the book of life has existed since the foundation of the world (Revelation 17:8).

Did the founding fathers believe this also? Elias Boudinot was the president of the Continental Congress in 1783. He put it simply.

So here we see that the founding fathers understood that they knew that the ancient Jewish festivals given in the Old Testament were actually celebrating the coming of Jesus centuries before it took place. I would say that they knew God could see the future and that He let us know this in the Holy Bible.

Gilman Ostrander in his "The Evolutionary Outlook" states that the founding fathers had this view also. "The American nation had been founded by intellectuals who had accepted a worldview that was based upon Biblical authority as well as Newtonian science. They had assumed that God created the earth and all life upon it at the time of creation and had continued without change thereafter. Adam and Eve were God's final creations, and all of mankind had descended from them."

Based on statements such as this, and many others besides, I feel that it is safe to say that God does indeed see the end of time from the beginning and that the founding fathers knew that this was true. This is the second principle from which we will build.

The third basis for this discussion of the Christian history of our nation is the fact that, since the beginning of time, there has been a continuing battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness for the souls of men.

When God created the physical universe, it was in a state that knew no evil and was totally good.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.-Genesis 1:31

It was Satan that first introduced mankind to the knowledge of evil that we are currently dealing with in our world.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.-Genesis 3:15

Satan now knows that mankind will be saved from his evil influence through the actions of a man that will be born of a woman. One of the big pictures of the Old Testament is the devil's endeavor to kill the seed of the woman before He can overthrow Satan's rule of the earth. This is why Satan deceived Cain into killing Abel (Genesis 4). It is also why the devil inspired Joseph's brothers to try to kill him (Genesis 37), Pharaoh to kill all the baby boys in Israel (Exodus 1), Queen Athaliah to kill her own grandsons (II Kings 11), and King Herod to kill the babies in Bethlehem (Matthew 2). Most of the attacks that Satan launches against the nation of Israel are actually attempts to kill the Messiah before He can destroy the devil. Needless to say, through God's Providence, all of the devil's attacks against the coming Messiah fail miserably. The Holy Scriptures also reveal that, throughout human history, two religious systems have competed for the souls of men. One is the bride (Ephesians 5:31-32) called the church and the other is called Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17:1-5). While much is known of the church, little is known today about Mystery Babylon. The Scriptures, however, have much to say about this hideous religious counterfeit to God's church.

Its name tells us much in itself. It is a mysterious religious system that began in Babylon. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, all pagan religions can be traced directly back to Babylon. Keep in mind that Herodotus said this 400 years before the birth of Jesus Christ!

God chose the city Jerusalem, which was originally called Salem meaning "peace" (Genesis 14:18-19). Satan also chose the city of Babylon, which was first called Babel meaning "confusion" (Genesis 11:8-9). These two cities have been locked in mortal combat since the days of Genesis, and a simple glance at the Middle East today shows that this battle rages still, as Israel is now back in its homeland, and one of the major players opposing them is Sadam Hussein, who claims to be the reincarnation of King Nebuchanezzar, king of Babylon (Daniel 1).

Just as the Holy Scriptures have given us the doctrines of the church, so they also reveal to us the doctrines of Mystery Babylon. Indeed all false religious systems on the earth, in one facet or another, partake of her doctrines. Seven of these doctrines can be found in Genesis. The first 3 doctrines are to be found in Genesis 3.

1-"Yea, hath God said"-Questioning the word of God.

2-"Ye shall not surely die"-No final death and judgment.

3-"Ye shall be as gods"-Man can become God.

4-"Cain brought the fruit of the ground"-Works salvation.

The next two started at the building of the tower of Babel (Isaiah 47:12-13).

5-"sorceries"-All manner of white and black magic.

6-"pronosticators"-All manner of fortune telling.

7-"strange gods"-The worship of idols, or anything other than God.

Using these false doctrines, and many others, Mystery Babylon has continually endeavored to enslave the world for Satan. Every pagan religion in the world exhibits some, or all, of these doctrines in one way or another. The most dangerous side to this false religious system is its state-church concept. As revealed in Revelation 17, this great whore, or false religious system (Ezekiel 16) rides on the back of the beast or the nations of the world (Daniel 7). Bible believers have stood against this evil church-state system since Old Testament times (Daniel 3 and 6). Still today, as in the ages past, the forces of darkness continue to wage this deadly war for the control of the nations of the earth.

When our Christian forefathers first came to America, it was to escape this false system of worship. The Pilgrims and Puritans, and many others to follow, came here to set up a Bible Commonwealth based solely on the truth of the Holy Scriptures, so there would be a land of freedom, safe from the many church-state systems in the world. With God's help, they succeeded. In 1787, during the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin appealed that those involved should begin each session with prayer because:

On April 25, 1799, Dr. Jedediah Morse, minister and "the father of American geography" assessed the decision the country faced in his day, and faces still, two centuries later:

On Memorial Day in 1923, Vice-President Calvin Coolidge, who would be President in three months, called upon Americans to recall the motives of their Puritan forebears:

As you can see, the true facts of history are very different from much of the historical revisionism that we see today which endeavors to use every excuse to write God out of the history books. Together we will try to overcome Satan's deception in this area by going back to our nation's beginning to see what actually took place, and how God worked through His people to make America "the land of the free and the home of the brave.

In fact there is another wonderful book on this subject called "The Rebirth of America", and it is offered, free of charge, from the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation. All you have to do is call 1-800-321-1538 and request it. It is one of the best books I have seen on the subject. Please call and get a copy as we will be referring to this as our textbook as we study together.

Before we can really discuss our own nation, we need to understand just what is God's definition of this word. The word nation appears in the Authorized King James Bible over 400 times, so God has quite a bit to say in this area. The first time this word appears is in Genesis 10.

By these were the isles of Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations-Genesis 10:4

The nations are divided, not by race or even location, but by the languages they speak. This makes perfect sense if you think about it. I have much more in common with American of another race than I have with a white man in Europe or elsewhere in the world. Here we see that nations are divided first and foremost by their languages and by the families they are born into. Keep in mind that, at the time of Noah and his sons, all the earth spoke one language. The reason God divided men into different tongues is explained in Genesis 11. God had told mankind to spread out over the earth and replenish it (Genesis 9). In rebellion, Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10) led the people to build a city and a tower at Babel. God's response to this rebellion was swift.

So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.-Genesis 11:8-9

The next time we hear nations mentioned as the first war begins to break out on this side of the flood.

The Hebrew word for nations is "goee" which also appears in the Bible as the word "Gentiles" and "heathens" because all of our ancestors, under the influence of Mystery Babylon, turned to idol worship and away from the living God (Daniel 3). The nation of Israel is set apart as a special nation, as from it would come Jesus Christ (Genesis 18:18) through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. When she turns to idols (Ezekiel 8), she is scattered among the Gentile nations (II Chronicles 36), to be conquered by first one and then another of the Gentile kingdoms around her (Daniel 7).

The situation that Jesus faces at His first coming is this. He lives in the nation of Israel which by then has been conquered by the Roman Empire, which was at that time the main headquarters for Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17:18). At the end of the Old Testament period, Jesus comes to save the world (John 1:1-5). The nation of Israel, for the most part, rejects Him and He pronounces judgement on them in....

Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. -Matthew 21:42-43

As Paul would say later, the gospel was first given to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Jesus tells His disciples that nations and wars would continue until He returned (Matthew 24:6-7). He also tells them that, in spite of that, the gospel would be given to every nation before He returns (Matthew 28:19-20). Then He would return and judge all nations (Matthew 25:31-46). The important thing to notice here is that God has used the nations to bring His will forth on the earth, at precisely the time and place that He wanted them to be.

The Greek word in the New Testament that is used for nations is "ethnos". It is translated "Gentiles" and "heathens" as the Old Testament Hebrew term "goee" is. We still use a form of this Greek term today when we speak of different "ethnic" groups of people.

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; -Acts 17:26

After Jesus' first coming, the system called Mystery Babylon used the Roman Empire to try to destroy the church. However, the Roman Empire finally reaped what it sowed and was itself destroyed. Another stronghold of Mystery Babylon was in Egypt at this time. Mystery Babylon, with one foot in Rome and the other in Alexandria, where major revisions are made in the Holy Scriptures, would finally drive the church, and the entire western world, into the Dark Ages within a few centuries.

When the state-church system of Rome began to form, one group that refused to bow to this new movement was the church of northern Italy. Having been formed around AD 120, this church, later to be called the Waldenses, would separate themselves from the church of Rome, taking with them their beloved Received Text in the Itala Bible. Many Waldenses would openly condemn the church leadership that had supplanted the Received Text of the Bible with the corrupt Alexandrian Text. At this point, the world is plunged into what we today call the Dark Ages.

The Christian faith has already spread all the way to Britain long before the forming of the state-church system of Rome, so when the Pope sends men to evangelize Europe, they find churches are already well established and thriving. They also find them opposing the Alexandrian Texts because they already have the Received Text in their possession due to the work of earlier missionaries from groups such as the Waldensian churches of northern Italy.

The heavy hand of the Roman Empire would reach out to destroy all earlier churches that were established there who would not agree with their new doctrines. Christian churches in Wales, Britain, northern Italy and many other parts of the world were destroyed if they dared oppose the church of Rome or if they preferred the Received Text to the Alexandrian Texts. Thus the world was hurled headlong into the period of time that we call the Dark Ages. This period was a great judgment against the Roman Empire for its continual opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ Just as the nation Israel was judged by a Babylonian invasion (Habakkuk 1:1-7), so now the Roman Empire falls victim to the invading barbarians by AD 486. The hunter now becomes the hunted as the Dark Ages officially begins.

In 1090, the church of Rome decided that they wanted to restore the city of Jerusalem that the empire of Rome had destroyed over 1,000 years before. By this time, the Moslems controlled the city so the Pope declared a series of wars, called the Crusades, to get the city back from the control of the Moslems. Many European noble men went to fight in the Crusades, and while traveling to and from the wars, they met many Waldenses, Ana-baptists, and other Christians who shared with them the Received Text as Dr. Peter Ruckman explains.

Many of these noble men returned home with copies of the Received Text and raised questions concerning the Catholic Bibles that were based on the corrupt Alexandrian Text. The pressure from these questions became so great that in 1229, the Catholic Church actually outlawed the Bible for any but their own priesthood. Can you imagine? Those that claimed to be God's church actually forbid God's people from reading God's word. This event fulfilled yet another Bible prophecy where the prophet Amos tells us there would come a time of a famine of the word of God (Amos 8:11-12).

 Man's thirst for God's word became so great that any who could, would try to seek out the Christians in the mountains just for a chance to see the word of God as revealed in the Received Text. The church of Rome responded to these people leaving their ranks in a swift and deadly way. In 1252 the Inquisition was initiated. Throughout Europe men, women, even children were stolen from their homes in the dead of night. They would be tortured to learn the location of their Christian brothers and sisters, or simply because they did not agree with the church of Rome. They would then be killed and their property given to the church. It became so bad that family members would betray one another to save their own lives, bringing to pass still another Bible prophecy (Mark 13:12).

When the Inquisition reached its height, God provided a way of escape. In the 15th century, God began to open men's eyes to many new discoveries that would rock the world, and give His church a chance to flourish once again. This is also the fulfillment of Bible prophecy (Daniel 12:4). It is during this time that eastern Europe receives better access to the word of God as the Received Text is translated into Rumanian in the Tepl Bible. This is the beginning of a wondrous time as God begins to free Christian Europe from the clutches of Mystery Babylon, and the church once again begins to flourish as God had foretold in Isaiah 60.

In fact, out of all of history, there are three events that take place which would change the world forever during this selfsame period of time. In 1456 Gutenberg prints his first Bibles in Germany. In 1492 Columbus discovers America. In 1517 Luther begins the Reformation. These three events changed the face of the world as we know, and yet, out of all of history, God saw fit to have these three take place within the same generation.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. -Psalms 90:10

The battle between the church and Mystery Babylon has raged since the beginning of time. Of all of the myriad doctrines of Mystery Babylon, there are three that make the basis on which all the others thrive. This three doctrines are given in Genesis 3.

 Her first doctrine "Yea, hath God said?" is a direct assault against the Holy Scriptures and their author, the Holy Ghost. Satan has spent the past few millennia continuing this battle of the Bible. By AD 100, the Bible is written and sealed. However that was nearly 2,000 years ago. What's happened to the Bible since then? We have hundreds of books today, each of which claims to be the word of God, but which one is the real one? The devil has tried to destroy the word of God. When that didn't work, he tried to make people disregard it, and when that didn't work, he has tried to lose it in a flood of corrupt copies and, in some cases, outright lies. In spite of all of this God's word has survived and, as Jesus said, "Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away!".

The last chapter of the last book of the last testament of the word of God was sealed with a curse for any that would add to or take away from the Holy Scriptures (Revelation 22:16-21).

These words were penned by the Apostle John. John would be imprisoned on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9) for his strong stand for God, but would later be released and return to the church at Ephesus where he would oversee the gathering together of the 27 books of the New Testament. When the New Testament canon is established, the churches at Ephesus and Antioch (Acts 11:19-26) begin to make faithful copies of these Bibles, sending them out with their missionaries to all parts of the earth so that the world might know that the Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, had come to purchase the salvation of all mankind with His own blood. This then becomes the Received Text of the church.

At about this time, The Roman Emperor Domitian's rule ends in AD 108. Trajan is the next emperor of Rome. It is Trajan that begins the practice of throwing Christians to the lions. While this is happening in Rome, the church at Antioch is translating the Received Text into Syrian. This version, known as the Peshitta, would later be called the Queen of Versions. The church also creates the Old Latin version of the Received Text during this time for the churches started in Rome and northern Italy.

At this time, Emperor Adrian would replace Trajan and continue his bloody attacks, sending thousands of Christians to their death.

As Jesus Christ and the apostles warned, wolves are also slipping into the church to corrupt the word of God. Irenaeus, an early church leader, notes this in the second century AD.

"Wherefore also Marcion and his followers have betaken themselves to mutilating the Scriptures, not acknowledging some books at all, and curtailing the gospel according to Luke and the Epistles of Paul, they assert that these alone are authentic which they themselves have shortened."

Some of the early church missionaries would travel south to the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Here they would encounter many other religious groups, such as the Arians and the Gnostics. The church had been warned of such groups by the Apostle John and many other of the early church leaders (I John 2:18-19). They would also come into contact with the religious school there. At that point in time, the school was under the leadership of a man named Origen. This man would ultimately do a major revision work on the New Testament, changing many of the scriptures to better suit the Greek doctrines prevalent at that time.

So it is that by the year AD 230, there are two completely different versions of the Holy Bible. One was given by God in Israel. The other is a corrupt copy made in Alexandria, Egypt.

So from this point in history, we find that we have two completely different lines of text for the word of God. The original word was made up of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and the Greek text of the New Testament. We also have a line of corrupt copies made up of the Greek Old Testament and the Origen New Testament, both of which have their beginnings in the pagan schools of Alexandria in the land of Egypt.

In AD 350 the people of Germany are given the Bible in their own language when the Received Text is translated into German in the Gothic Bible. In AD 400, the people of Armenia are given the word of God when the Received Text is translated into their language in the Armenian Bible. The people of Russia are given the Holy Scriptures around AD 440 in the Georgian Bible. The children of Ishmael, long-time enemies of the nation of Israel, are given the word of God as the Received Text is translated in their language in the Arabic Bible in AD 650. The people of Russia also are given the gospel in the Slavic Bible in AD 800. So, even here, God's word goes forth even as the Roman Empire falls under the judgment of God and the Dark Ages begin.

In the 15th century, God began to open men's eyes to many new discoveries that would rock the world, and give His church a chance to flourish once again. This is also the fulfillment of Bible prophecy (Daniel 12:4). It is during this time that eastern Europe receives better access to the word of God as the Received Text is translated into the Rumanian language in the Tepl Bible.

Just as Daniel had foretold knowledge in many areas of life began to explode beginning with a man in Germany named Gutenberg. This man was given a dream from God, which showed him a marvelous device. It was the world's first printing press and Gutenberg followed God's instructions and began printing Bibles for the people in 1456.

Suddenly the word of God begins to take Europe by storm. The Received Text is translated into the language of Holland in 1523, Denmark in 1524, Iceland in 1540, Hungary in 1541, Finland in 1548, Poland in 1551, Croatia in 1563, and Yugoslavia in 1584.

Only eternity will tell how many souls will be in heaven as the word of God literally floods these nations.

Following the death of Jesus Christ, Satan launches a prolonged and vicious attack against the church. The first of the saints to fall is one of the first deacons named Stephen (Acts 7:59-60). Stephen's death is closely followed by the murder of one of the original twelve apostles, James, the brother of John (Acts 12:1-2). Thus began a trail of blood that would stretch throughout the centuries to come. The city of Jerusalem is destroyed by the Roman legions in AD 70 and, by the time of the writing of the book or Revelation, the persecution of the church is in full swing. This situation is graphically shown in the letter to the church at Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11).

Nero, who had the Apostle Paul beheaded, was the first of ten Roman emperors who endeavored to stamp out the early Christian church. It was also Nero who would have the city of Rome burned and blame this terrible act on the church. Thus the first wave of the Roman killing of Christians began. Nero would die in AD 67, the same year that he had Paul murdered.

Nero would be replaced by emperor Domitian. It is Domitian who has the city of Jerusalem destroyed. He also has everyone in the family of David killed to stop future uprisings. It is also during this time that the Apostle John is exiled to Patmos. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the legions of Rome in AD 70. Three years later, the last Jewish stronghold called Masada, also fell to the Roman army. Domitian also had Paul's student Timothy beaten to death with clubs. It is during this period that, under the leadership of the Apostle John, the church compiles the New Testament. Dr. Otis Fuller gives some wonderful details to the compilation of the New Testament texts.

In AD 162 Marcus Aurelius become emperor. By his order, Polycarp and Justin are martyred. It is during this time that the practice begins of sewing Christians into nets and throwing them to wild bulls. Following Marcus, Severus takes the throne, ruling for forty years persecuting the church with great zeal.

Emperor Maximus comes to the throne in AD 235. He developed the Circus Maximus which was a series of annual events in which Maximus entertained his subjects by killing Christians. Fifty Christians would be thrown to the lions at one time while the Romans watched and cheered.

Maximus was followed by emperor Decius in AD 249. A Christian brother by the name of Julian is the most famous martyr of this period. Upon refusing to bow to Rome's gods, Julian is placed in a large leather bag with serpents and scorpions. The bag is then thrown into the sea.

The rule of Valerian begins in AD 257. Christian persecution worsens. In one case, 300 Christians are rounded up. They are commanded to sacrifice to Jupiter. When they refuse, they are suffocated one at a time until all are dead.

The last Roman emperor of this period is Diocletian. When this ruler learned that there were Christians in his army, he had over 6,000 of them brought to one place. When they refuse to worship Rome's idol, he has 600 of them killed. When they refuse the second time, he has another 600 murdered. On the third refusal, Diocletian orders his legions to kill all the rest, and orders the destruction of their homes and families also.

With over two hundred years of bloody persecution, Mystery Babylon could not stop God's church from growing and spreading the gospel. However, with the death of emperor Diocletian, the Roman empire itself splits apart. As if to say He had seen enough, God destroyed this world-ruling state-church system that has for so long stood against His church. It was also at this point that Satan pulled off one of his greatest schemes. As the old saying goes, "If you can't beat them, join them!". The devil realizes that he cannot destroy the church, so he has his people try to become part of it to destroy it from within.

By AD 312, the Roman Empire is full of warring factions, each trying to take all of the world for themselves. There are two major generals who try to bring Rome back together and restore the empire. One is called Galerius and the other Constantine. They battled bitterly for the throne. Galerius held the city of Rome. Constantine led his armies to take the city away from Galerius. Just before the final battle, Constantine has a vision that he says is from God. His troops win the battle and Constantine is declared the new emperor of Rome. He tells his troops that God has given him a special mission. He has his troops baptized and declares to them that they are now all Christians. He takes for himself the title "Pontifus Maximus". His first official act is to pass the edict of Milan. It declares that the official religion of Rome is now Christianity and gives freedom of religion to all. The first major period of church persecution has now officially ended.

With freedom of religion in Rome comes a new and perhaps more deadly enemy to the faith as the Alexandrian texts are introduced to the church at Rome. Now the church must fight a new, and more deadly battle as the influences of the ancient system called Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17) find their way into the New Testament church and the Dark Ages commence.

It would be many years later in Germany when one of the newly-circulated Bibles would reach the hands of a young German priest named Martin Luther. His love of God made him read this forbidden book and he found a passage that changed his life forever (Romans 1:17). Martin Luther, years later, would ultimately reject the Alexandrian Text of the Roman Catholic Church and translate the Received Text into German in the Luther Bible. Thus yet another language group would receive the true word of God. The very fierceness of the battle between light and darkness becomes so great, that God Himself provides a way of escape.

As the pagan empire of Rome joins itself to the New Testament church, those who refuse to compromise the doctrines that are taught in the word of God find themselves once again the enemies of the state, as more and more new doctrines come from the newly formed state-church. The Lutheran church historian Mosheim gives a good description of difference between the church as set up by Christ and the new state-church that is developed in the centuries following this period.

The religious system known as Mystery Babylon has long had the pagan Roman Empire in tow, and now she uses her power to bring her doctrines into the very church that Jesus has built (Matthew 16:18). Those who remain loyal to Christ and the Scriptures quickly find themselves on the outside looking in, as J.M. Carroll so aptly describes.

Through a series of maneuvers, many of the doctrines that were started by Mystery Babylon at the tower of Babel are slowly introduced into the New Testament church. "Yea, hath God said?" takes the Received Text of the church and replaces it with the Alexandrian Text. "Ye shall not surely die" is seen in many doctrines, such as purgatory. "Ye shall be as gods" can be seen through the worship of Mary and the saints. After all, was not the Roman Caesar a god also? A complex system of works salvation replaces the simple gospel of Jesus Christ, and puts an extremely heavy burden on the people (Luke 11:46). Idolatry leaves the temples of Rome only to be brought into the house of God, as the church is slowly infiltrated by the great harlot known as Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17:17-18).

When the state-church of Rome began to form, one group that refused to bow to this new movement was the church of northern Italy. Having been formed around AD 120, this church, later to be called the Waldenses, would separate themselves from the church of Rome, taking with them their beloved Received Text in the Itala Bible. Many Waldenses would openly condemn the church leadership that had supplanted the Received Text of the Bible with the corrupt Alexandrian Text.

The Christian faith has already spread all the way to Britain long before the forming of the church of Rome, so when the Pope sends men to evangelize Europe, they find churches are already well established and thriving. They also find them opposing the Alexandrian Texts because they already have the Received Text in their possession due to this selfsame work of earlier missionaries from groups such as the Waldensian churches of northern Italy. According to the church historian Dr. Von Dobshutz:

The Catholic church splits in 1056 over the question of the authority of the Bible, and in 1229, the Roman Catholic Church outlaws the Bible for any but their own priesthood. Those that claimed to be God's church actually forbid God's people from reading God's word. This event fulfilled yet another Bible prophecy where the prophet Amos tells us there would come a time of a famine of the word of God (Amos 8:11-12).

In 1252 the Inquisition is initiated. The purpose of the Inquisition was to wipe out all heretics. A heretic is anyone who does not totally agree with the doctrine of the Catholic church. This bloody attempt to stamp out God's people went on for over 400 years. When it was done over 50 million people, many Ana-baptists and even Catholics themselves, were killed. When the Inquisition reached its height, God provided a way of escape.

At about this time in Italy, a young man had a revelation from God concerning the nature of the earth itself, based on a verse found in Isaiah 40:22. The man who believed this verse was Christopher Columbus. The pope in Rome had declared that the world was flat, so Columbus had to leave Italy and go to Spain for support for his project. His plan was to sail to the west, go around the world and land on the east Asian coast. In 1492, he set sail from the south of Spain and, after many long weeks, his ships sighted land. Thinking that he had reached India, Columbus named the natives that he found there Indian, which they are still called to this day. He had actually landed on an island off the coast of North America. He named the island "El Salvador" which means the Saviour.

Christopher Columbus has changed the world in a way that few other people in history have. However, contrary to popular belief, it is not because he discovered America. European Christians, under the leadership of Brendan, the Navigator, were in America as early as AD 600, and almost everyone has heard of Leif Ericson who came to North America around the year 1000.

Around 1400 there was a ship's captain named Stephen who traded along the western coast of Africa and Europe. On one of his return trips to Europe, he picked up a passenger who was an old missionary, returning home for the last time. As they neared the missionary's homeland, an unusual thing happened. The old man stated "There are people out there who need Jesus." What made this unusual was the fact that, as he said this, he pointed his hand not east towards his homeland, but west toward the open expanse of the Atlantic ocean. This event was so shocking that Stephen would never forget it. He returned home to relate this story to his son and grandson. The grandson was so effected by the story that he would name his son "Christ-bringer" or Christopher as it was said in those days. Thus Christopher Columbus, from his childhood, learned he story of his great-grandfather Stephen and the missionary.

Many years later, this same man would stand up to the scientific community and the established church of his day because he had reached a conclusion based, not on the current evidence available in his day, but on a single verse he had found in the Bible. I will now allow this young man to speak for himself.

Now Christopher Columbus would never complete the journey he set out on, but later Magellan would. In spite of the vast weight of the scholars, scientists, theologians, and evidence standing against him. He simply clung to one verse in God's word.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. -I Timothy 6:10

As the Reformation begins, thousands of people leave the church of Rome to gather themselves around anyone who might stand up to the catholic church and had some knowledge of the word of God. This was the official end of the Dark Ages, as foretold in the Bible.

One of the Christians who would stand up to the church was William Tyndale. He was the first man to translate the New Testament into English. He uses for his source texts not the corrupt Alexandrian Text, but the Received Text for his English Bible. He did this in 1524 and the pope in Rome put out a reward for Tyndale's capture. He was finally caught in 1536, and was burned at the stake for daring to get the Received Text back into the hands of God's people.

One group, called the Puritans lived in England and petitioned King James to have the entire Bible translated into English. The king agreed and chose scholars from all over England. This group of scholars, like Tyndale and others, would totally reject the Alexandrian line of Text and chose the Received Text as the basis for their Bible. It was this text that would finally become known as the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, which was finished in 1611.

By this time, the word of religious freedom in England had reached Europe. Many small, persecuted groups of Christians fled to England. However things in England soon turned against these groups. As Dr. J. M. Carroll explains.

With their backs now to the Atlantic Ocean, the people of God had only one more place to flee to and that was America. The Pilgrims and the Puritans, closely followed by the Baptists, all booked passage on ships to the New World, preferring its unknown dangers to the persecutions all around them. As the church re-located to America, it brought with it their beloved Received Text, using it as the basis for a new form of government never before seen on earth, the Bible Commonwealth.

As the church sets its roots down in America, the greatest missionary period in all history begins. This is also the fulfillment of yet another Bible prophecy (Isaiah 60:8-9). This prophecy may well be one of the most significant as it relates to American history. Who are these that fly as a cloud? It is in America that the Wright Brothers would invent the airplane. In prophecy "isles" were any land other than Asia, Africa, and Europe, which today we call the Old World. Another amazing part of this prophecy is the mention of the "ships of Tarshish first". Tarshish was the old name for the south of Spain. It was indeed from this area that Columbus and his ships first set out to discover the New World. It was also from the New World that Columbus and other explorers returned with gold, silver, and sons from afar, native Americans. It also tells us here why the natives were brought back. While evil men may have had other intention, it was God's intention that they could come to know the name of the Lord so that they might be saved.

It is to the New World that the church did flee to escape the clutches of Mystery Babylon. America becomes a truly Christian nation. One of the first things the new settlers do is to set up schools so that their children can learn to read the Scriptures. Within a few decades, great universities would spring up, such as Yale and Harvard, to train young men to become missionaries to carry the Holy Scriptures into the far reaches of the New World and back into the Old World to win them both for Christ. Great revivals sweep the young nation, as the people draw closer to their God. Satan is truly enraged, but is able to do little to stem the tide of world evangelism, at least for now.

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. -Psalms 127:1

As we had mentioned earlier, the Spanish, thanks to Christopher Columbus, were the first to set up colonies in the new world in the 16th century, concentrating mostly on the search for gold in Central and South America. Following their example, the French would also begin exploring, going much further north and trying to find a waterway through the Hudson River area of Canada. English exploration was limited until 1585, when Sir Walter Raleigh tried to set up a colony in North America unsuccessfully. In 1588 the Spanish Armada was defeated by England and this opened the Atlantic Ocean for English exploration to truly begin.

The first permanent settlement was attempted when a group who called themselves the Virginia Company petitioned King James I for permission to colonize the new world. The king's response was direct and to the point that the purpose of this colony was to be for the....

Thus the first English settlement in the new world was for a specific purpose, for the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1607 the Jamestown settlement was begun. The first English clergyman to claim North America for Jesus Christ was Robert Hunt, the pastor in charge of this settlement. A direct descendant of Robert Hunt is Pat Robertson, who has set up a massive Christian complex in this same part of eastern America today. Robert Hunt died in 1609, giving his life for the spread of the gospel of Christ in America. His memorial tells best of the sentiments of his fellow colonists and also of how this Christian lived and served his Lord.

The Virginia Company widely advertised Jamestown as a chance for men to spread the gospel in able to obtain help for this project. The method most widely used was the printing press. One such printing, called "A True and Sincere Declaration" reads as follows.

In spite of the beautiful picture painted by the Virginia Company, however, the real reason for this venture was soon to come to light as three satanic strongholds were brought into the American colonies by the real motives for the Virginia Company's desire to colonize America. The first of these are described in....

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. -I Timothy 6:10

For this reason, God would not allow Jamestown to prosper, but instead their early years are filled with hunger, privation, wars, plagues, and even cannibalism. It mattered not how many men the Virginia Company sent from England, within a short time half their number would die, as planting, building, and the spread of the gospel took a back seat to the neverending search for gold. Finally, in 1610, the few colonists left decide to give up and return home to England, they are suddenly rescued as a new shipload of colonists, including several ministers of the gospel arrived to save the day. Colonist William Crashaw tells of the sudden turn of events that saved this colony.

However, even with God giving them such a wondrous miracle to preserve them in the new world, the love of money continued to plague them until, in 1619, a second stronghold of Mystery Babylon was introduced into the Jamestown colony. This particular problem is listed with much of the merchandise that this evil system has made use of down through the ages.

And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. -Revelation 18:13

It is also in 1619 that the third stronghold of Mystery Babylon finds its way into this early American colony. It is in this year that tobacco cultivation began as a new cash crop for Jamestown. Thus addiction now becomes a part of American life and addictions of all kinds still enslave millions of Americans today. It matters not what substance you abuse, the results are always the same and tragic for all who fall victim to it, as the Apostle Paul explains in....

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. -I Corinthians 6:19-20

This cash crop became such a success for Jamestown that it soon replaced gold as the major impediment for the spread of the gospel in the new world. A good example of this is found in a discussion that took place in 1622 between James Blair the president of the newly founded William and Mary College and General Edward Seymour concerning the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the colony. When Blair mentioned that the colonies of Virginia had many souls that needed to be saved, Seymour responded simply, "Souls? Damn your souls! Make tobacco!" God is just however. The Virginia Company would finally go bankrupt after all its efforts to make merchandise of the gospel.

America still staggers under this same battle today. Pray that the love of God will once again take the precedence that it had in the earlier days of our nation.

As we take this time to follow the history of our Christian American forefathers, I can't help but note the key difference between the two early English colonies, Jamestown given to the love of money, and Plymouth based upon the love of God.

At the time that the Jamestown colony was just beginning in America, two groups were striving to cleanse the Church of England of many of the Mystery Babylon doctrines that had infiltrated the body of Christ in this part of the world. One of the groups that were dedicated to purifying the Church of England were called the Puritans. Another group that had given up on this idea and decided to become one of an ever-increasing number of Separatists movements of the day, leaving the Church of England altogether was called the Pilgrims.

In 1606 the Pilgrims were first formed under the leadership of William Brewster in Scrooby, England. As more people left the Church of England, the clergy appealed for King James to do something to stop this growing problem. He would finally reply to this request in the following manner.

Here again, we see the distinct difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church-state oppression of Mystery Babylon. Based on this action, the Pilgrims moved from England to Holland. Some years later, William Bradford would describe this time and the decisions they faced.

At this point in time, Pastor John Robinson, along with other leaders, discussed the possibility of moving to America, but the horror stories of what was happening at that time in Jamestown made them decide against such action. However, as time passed, the Holy Scriptures that they had taken their name from began to exert its influence more and more into their lives.

-I Peter 2:11-12

It would be Pastor John Robinson who would articulate the growing desire among this small band of Christians. "Now as the people of God in old time were called out of Babylon civil, the place of their bodily bondage, and were to come to Jerusalem, and there to build the Lord's temple, or tabernacle, so are the people of God now to go out of Babylon spiritual to Jerusalem and to build themselves as lively stones into a spiritual house, or temple, for the Lord to dwell in."

At this point, they contacted the Virginia Company in England and one hundred and two of the Pilgrims left in 1620 to start a settlement in America. After many weeks of extreme hardship and storms, the ship called the Mayflower arrived far north of their destination. When this was realized, the Pilgrims, now under the leadership of William Bradford, formulated the Mayflower compact which would be the basis for the government of this new colony.

Many years later, William Bradford, who would become governor of the Plymouth colony, would write the definitive history of their experiences entitled "Of Plymouth Plantation". Speaking of the many hardships that they would face during these early colonial days, he stated, "But these things did not dismay them (though they sometimes trouble them) for their desires were set on the ways of God, and to enjoy His ordinances; but they rested on His Providence and knew whom they had believed."

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. -Hebrews 11:13-16

The Pilgrims reached Plymouth in November of 1620. In those days, there was a mistaken belief in England that the seasons were reversed in the New World. Because of this, the Pilgrims left in August, believing that they would reach the New World in the spring. Instead, they arrived just as winter was about to begin.

As soon as they landed, they began to build shelters against the coming winter. Weakened by their long voyage, sickness began to take its toll. By December, many began to die from pneumonia and consumption.

The situation soon went from bad to worse. By the time that spring finally did arrive, of the one hundred and two Pilgrims that had set out on the voyage, only fifty five were still alive.

One day in March, 1621 an Indian walked into their compound, approached the Pilgrims, and addressed them in perfect English. As the startled settlers soon learned, his name was Samoset and he was the chief of the Agoquins tribe. He had learned English from the various sea captains that his tribe had traded with over the years. He told the Pilgrims of the Patuxets, a fierce tribe that had lived for many years on the land that the Pilgrims now occupied. The Patuxets had been wiped out by a plague shortly before the Pilgrims had come. After a short visit, Samoset left promising to return soon.

A week later, Samoset would return with another Indian. This Indian was the sole survivor of the Patuxets and his name was Squanto. Squanto had also worked years earlier with Captain John Smith from the Jamestown settlement. Squanto was later enslaved and taken to England by Captain George Weymouth. While in England, Squanto had stayed with a group of friars, who had taught him the English language and the Christian faith. It was while Squanto was in England that his tribe was destroyed by the plague. Finally he returned to Plymouth where he then lived with the Wampanoag tribe, heartbroken over the loss of his people.

When Squanto learned from Samoset about the Pilgrims, he decided that God had given him a new family, and stayed with the Pilgrims, teaching them the ways of hunting, fishing, and farming in the New World. With the help of this godsend, the Pilgrims began to flourish at Plymouth, and finally in November, 1621, one year after their arrival, they invited the Wampanoags to a great feast, giving thanks to God for their preservation in this, their new home. We still celebrate this feast today in our holiday, Thanksgiving.

The goal of the Pilgrims was to leave behind the state-church system in England, and return to the New Testament Christianity found in the Bible. Thus they would be the first step in the Bible Commonwealth, a society free of the influence of Mystery Babylon that held sway over much of Europe. Thus the second permanent English settlement in America, Plymouth, was based on the love of God, as opposed to the first settlement, Jamestown, which was based on the love of money. These two powerful forces still contend for the souls of men in America today.

On June 11, 1630, John Winthrop, leader of a group of Puritans aboard a ship called the Arbella put pen to paper and characterized the bond between them. He titled it "A Model of Christian Charity".

The Puritans were at the same time similar to and different from their Pilgrim brethren. The Pilgrims, if you remember, had given up on the church of England and had come to America to live as the early church, free from the influence of Mystery Babylon in Europe. The Puritans, on the other hand, had determined to come to America and establish a purified church of England. Thus their methods would be quite different. For instance, within a few years of their arrival, they would establish Harvard and other schools for the express purpose of training ministers of the gospel. You must admit, this is indeed a far cry from what those schools are about today, yet another sign of our nation's turning away from the true God of heaven.

Puritan minister Increase Mather was born on June 21, 1639. When King Charles II of England demanded the return of the Massachusetts charter in 1683, this American statesman and president of Harvard carefully prepared the following reply.

It is clear to see where the revolutionary spirit of our forefathers first found root in America. These were men committed to living for God or dying in the effort. Pray that God would raise up another generation of such men and women today.

John Winthrop, who would one day be governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, concluded his landmark document, A Model of Christian Charity, with this encouragement: "We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, 'The Lord make it like that of New England.' For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill."

Here, clearly again, we see our ancestors clear vision of their coming to America, not so much to set up a new secular state, but to set up a Bible Commonwealth, a nation given totally to the worship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with liberty and justice for all!

Puritan leader Roger Sherman helped to write the Declaration of Independence and served in the United States Congress. His tombstone reads as follows. "He ever adorned the profession of Christianity which he made in youth; and, distinguished through life for public usefulness, died in the prospect of a blessed mortality."

These were truly a people given into a covenant with their God. Pray that we will return one day as a nation to the God that we, as a nation, have forsaken.

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. -Psalms 9:17

During the early 17th century, many Bible believers fled Europe to escape the growing stronghold that Mystery Babylon had established there. Pilgrims, Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, and many other groups came to the New World in search of religious freedom from the many state church systems of the Old World. Those who came to America because of their love of God were blessed in their endeavors as the new American colonies began to grow. When the children of these immigrants began to reach adulthood, a new danger loomed for Christian America. As the puritan leader, Cotton Mather, so aptly put it, "Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter ate the mother!".

Remember that God had started our great nation with two English colonies: Jamestown, which was given over to the love of money; and Plymouth, which was dedicated to the love of God. One of the spiritual strongholds of darkness at Jamestown was slavery. During the 1680's, the curse of slavery spreads to the Plymouth colonies as they also begin to trade in the slaves provided by their southern cousins. It is one of these slaves who would later teach a group of young women certain principles of witchcraft. This incident would ultimately result in the Salem witch trials, where twenty people would be condemned and hanged for witchcraft.

In the 18th century, it became more and more evident that the generation that had originally came to America for freedom to worship God was being replaced by a generation of people who were turning further and further away from God. The godly remnant, that Jesus always has in such instances, prayed mightily for their people to turn back to God. These prayers are answered with a series of revivals which would later be known as the Great Awakening. God always does things in perfect timing and, in His perfect foreknowledge, He knew that these people would need this spiritual renewal for the terrible times that they would soon be facing in the latter part of the 1700's, as this small group of colonies would ultimately have to take on the greatest empire of their day to gain the true freedom that God had prepared for the generations yet to come. As the debate grew among the colonies over whether to finally separate from Great Britain, American patriot John Adams wrote, "If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, and that a free country!"

Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah. -Psalms 9:20

This was indeed in stark contrast to the system which had inspired the Dark Ages and the Inquisition. This is why the colonists began to seriously consider separation from England, not because of taxes nearly as much as the threat from English kings to install a bishop of the Church of England over the colonies. This would mean that America would then be enslaved by the same dread system that they had come there to escape. The thought of an American church state system, where their taxes would go to the support of yet another Mystery Babylon system was more than many were able to bear. Many understood that good government was not enforced but taught, from generation to generation.

Elias Boudinot, president of the Continental Congress in 1783, and later a congressman from New Jersey, who also served as president of the American Bible Society put it simply. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Let it then, as workmanship of the same Divine hand, be our peculiar constant care and vigilant attention to inculcate this sacred principle, and to hand it down to posterity. Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow."

It was sentiments such as this that would sweep across the colonies in years to come. This sentiment would also be sounded in one of the rallying cries to be heard when the conflict would begin, "No king buy King Jesus!" God was already preparing leaders for the coming conflict also. For instance, on July 18, 1755, following the bloody Battle of the Monogahela in the French and Indian war, Colonel George Washington wrote, "By the miraculous care of Providence, that protected me beyond all human expectations, I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me, and yet escaped unhurt."

As opposition to British oppression grows, the true reason for the conflict became more evident. Whenever British troops would find an American pastor, he would be summarily executed, and whenever they found a church house, it would be turned into either a stable or a brothel. When the port in Boston was closed by British troops in 1774, William Prescott wrote to the citizens, " We heartily sympathize with you, and are always ready to do all in our power for your support, comfort, and relief knowing that Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock. We consider that we are all embarked in the same boat and must sink or swim together. Let us all be of one heart, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And may He, of His infinite mercy, grant us deliverance out of all our troubles."

These were truly troubling times as Mystery Babylon endeavored to establish its dominance over the young colonies. However, just like David and Goliath, God would preserve his people against what appeared to be unsurmountable odds. In the same manner, as the days grow darker for our nation today, I pray for a new generation of Davids, Daniels, Ruths, and Esthers to preserve our nation to turn it back into the Christian nation that it once was.

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations. -Psalms 22:27-28

As the Revolutionary war began, many were the emotions that took hold of those on both sides of the struggle. At the end of May, 1775, three weeks after the taking of Fort Ticonderoga, the Reverend Samuel Langdon, president of Harvard College, was invited to preach to the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Deeply concerned at the giddy euphoria which was sweeping New England, he was determined to speak what he felt God was impressing on him: "We have rebelled against God. We have lost the true spirit of Christianity, though we retain the outward profession and form of it. By many, the Gospel is corrupted into a superficial system of moral philosophy, little better than ancient Platonism. My brethren, let us repent and implore the divine mercy. Let us amend our ways and our doings, reform everything that has been provoking the Most High, and thus endeavor to obtain the gracious interpositions of providence for our deliverance. May the Lord hear us in this day of trouble. We will rejoice in His salvation, and in the name of our God, we will set up our banners!"

Needless to say, times like this give rise to many different situations that call for special faith. After an especially bloody encounter, Corporal Amos Farnsworth wrote in his diary: "Oh, the goodness of God in preserving my life, although they fell on my right hand and on my left! O may this act of deliverance of thine, O God, lead me never to distrust thee; but may I ever trust in thee and put confidence in no arm of flesh!"

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. -Psalms 33:12

This must have been a verse used often during some of the darker days of the American revolution. However there were other dangers also, equally as deadly to the fledgling nation. In the wake of the fortification of Dorchester Heights which forced the British to leave Boston, American confidence ran high, so high that the invasion of Canada was attempted, with disastrous results. Sobered, the Continental Congress heeded the admonitions of many clergymen and declared May 17, 1776, a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. In his sermon for the occasion, John Witherspoon began:

Many times the founding fathers realized that this was true, that it was indeed God's hand that was protecting them. Commander in chief George Washington made the following observation,

May we all pray for a return to the time when, once again, we will see that it is God that makes our nation great, and not we ourselves. The book of Psalms holds many principles that we would do well to heed today, as our early founding fathers did.

Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. -Psalms 43:1

John Witherspoon was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776, served intermittently in Congress until 1782, and was a member of over a hundred legislative committees, including two vital standing committees, the Board of War and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He, better than most, could see both the political and spiritual sides of this struggle. Here is yet another founding father who truly saw that America would only be great as long as America was good. Let us pray that we, as a nation will learn that lesson again today.

He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. -Psalms 47:3

It is indeed sad that we cannot say that our nation is still standing for righteous causes today, as it once did. The idea of religious freedom, freedom from the church-state systems instituted down through the ages by Satan via Mystery Babylon, was uppermost in the minds of those who risked their lives so long ago in the forming of the United States of America. The Continental Congress entered into a debate on whether or not to separate from Great Britain on July 1, 1776. It was at this time that John Adams declared:

Still today, we enjoy the freedom to worship as we please. Yet how long will we continue to turn away from the God that made this nation great before we will lose this most precious of all freedoms. We all need to dedicate ourselves to prayer that we, as the singer Carman puts it, need God in America again.

I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. -Psalms 57:9

As we mentioned earlier, the trouble between the colonies and King George III really heated up when the king suggested that he might install a church of England bishop over the colonies. The taxes collected would go to this church, a clear return to the church-state system of Mystery Babylon. America's response to this a very quick no-thank-you. To this the king sent back a short ultimatum, "No miter, no sceptre!" In other words, if you do not bow to the miter of the church of England, you are in effect refusing to bow to the king of England. The colonies reply was simple and to the point. "Very well then, no miter and no sceptre!" and the rallying cry of the colonies became "No king but King Jesus!" In reply to this pronouncement, King George's reply sent troops to America to revoke the charters of all the colonies.

From the pulpits of America came wave after wave of sermons depicting America as captive Israel and King George as Pharaoh. In fact, King George would state in time that the army he feared most in America was the black regiment, referring to the American clergy. He had good reason for this. A young minister by the name of Peter Muhlenberg is a good case in point. One Sunday morning, Pastor Muhlenberg delivered a powerful sermon on....

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. -Ecclesiastes 3:1

He closed his sermon thus, "In the language of the Holy Writ, there is a time for all things. There is a time to preach and a time to fight, and now is the time to fight!" With that he threw off his clerical robes to reveal the uniform of a colonel in the Continental Army. Three hundred recruits would sign up on the spot and Pastor Muhlenberg marched off the same day at the head of his new regiment, the 8th Virginia. He would finally rise to the rank of brigadier general by the time the war ended.

Is there any wonder that such faith in God would not inspire men to great deeds? None whatsoever. It is very easy to understand why Benjamin Franklin could say, "Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world."

On May 1, 1777, intelligence reached the American army that at last France was coming into the war on the side of America. In announcing the French decision to his joyous troops, General George Washington proclaimed:

Thomas Jefferson would go directly to the heart of the matter in his "Notes on the state of Virginia" written in 1781.

I feel that there is much more evidence for the Christian witness of George Washington than many today believe. He was raised by a Christian mother in a Christian church. He continued to carry a prayer diary where he documented his prayers during his military campaigns. There is even a wonderful room in the basement of the Capitol building in Washington, D. C. where a prayer room is set aside complete with a beautiful stained glass window showing George Washington kneeling in prayer. Take the following example, for instance.

On July 5, 1775, General George Washington issued this order to the Continental Army.

When General George Washington resigned his commission from the army in 1783, he sent letters to the governors of the thirteen states which concluded with a prayer:

On April 30, 1789, on the balcony of the Federal Hall in New York City, George Washington, the first President of the United States of America, took the oath of office. Then, embarrassed by the cheers of the multitude below, he went inside to address Congress:

President Washington went on to extol the virtues of godly government and the great privilege and awesome responsibility that came with the highest office in our land. He would go on to close with a powerful statement of what he believed really allowed our nation to be free, in itself a far cry from the self-righteous pronouncements of his modern-day counterparts.

Washington was a member of the Episcopal Church. In fact, on June 1, 1774, while considering what the future of our nation might be, Washington states that he went to church and fasted all day. Odd behavior for someone who is not a Christian. There is a most wonderful statement with which the Commander-in-Chief closes the Circular to the States, his formal resignation issued in June, 1783, in which he exalts America to....

After his death, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall said of Washington,

"I am the Resurrection and the Life; sayeth the Lord. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."

An appropriate epitaph for a man who gave his life for his God and his country.

Let me share one statement to put to rest any lingering doubts that might still be out there. In his will, George Washington stated to his heirs,

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. -Psalms 67:1-2

The Declaration of Independence of the United States contains the following phrases: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...", "Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions...", and "With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence..."

In spite of all this, many historical revisionists today still resist the idea of America being founded as a Christian nation. Take for instance, those men who risked their lives by signing the Declaration of Independence and what they had to say about their belief in God.

"First of all, I rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins."-Samuel Adams

"I am constrained to express my adoration of the Author of my existence for His forgiving mercy revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state."-Robert Treat Paine

"I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the doctrines of the Christian religion, but also, in the bowels of a father's affection, to exhort and charge my children that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness."-Richard Stockton

"On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits; not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts."-Charles Carroll

"My only hope of salvation is in the infinite, transcendent love of God manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the cross. Nothing but His blood will wash away my sins. I rely exclusively upon it. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"-Benjamin Rush

"I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; the same in substance, equal in power and glory. That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are a revelation from God and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him."-Roger Sherman  

"I shall now entreat you in the most earnest manner to believe in Jesus Christ, for there is no salvation in any other (Acts 4:12). If you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness, you must forever perish."-John Witherspoon

Among many of the things that Thomas Jefferson would work on, there is a section of the Northwest Ordinance that I would like to now address, article III, to be exact.

Please note that he is saying that schools are established to encourage the teaching of religion to the children of our nation. This is indeed a far cry from what our current leaders, the judiciary for example, feel should be promoted in schools. It has always been a wonder to me that so few leaders realize that if you take God out of the schools, you should not be surprised to see the selfsame schools begin to produce godless children. We are reaping that harvest today.

In 1787, President Jefferson would promote an act in Congress which set aside special lands,

Again this is a far cry from what many declare today as Jefferson's doctrine of separation of church and state, which was actually a reference in a letter from him to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, which reassured them that no state-church system would be established in America, as was at that time in Europe. A system that the Holy Scriptures calls Mystery Babylon, and the church has opposed down throughout the ages.

After his work on the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was the Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781. It was during this time that he would proclaim a day of, "Public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to the Almighty God."

One of the most sobering statements concerning our nation and what we face when we turn from God was made by this founding father in his "Notes on the State of Virginia", where he stated:

How prophetic those words were! If President Jefferson feared that for the America of his day, how much more should we fear the wrath of God today, when so many historical revisionists are trying to remove all reference to God from the history of our nation. It is not God, but the traditions of men taking the place of God's word in our nation that brings judgment upon us, as Jefferson fully understood.

It is the failure to realize these basic biblical truths today that has brought us, as a nation, to the precipice on which we find ourselves at the present time. In 1774, while serving in the Virginia Assembly, he personally introduced a resolution calling for a Day of Fasting and Prayer. It was Jefferson who would pen the famous words of the Declaration of Independence which begin,

It was Thomas Jefferson who proposed that the United States seal, which expressed the spirit of the nation should be,

President Jefferson truly understood the difference between God's church and Mystery Babylon, something that so many who do not understand the Bible fail to grasp. While his latter years would be deeply influenced by his exposure to the doctrines that underlined the French Revolution, he truly understood that Christianity in its purest form,

In a letter written on June 17, 1804 to Henry Fry, Jefferson proclaimed,

While I am sure that I could find beliefs of this president that I would disagree with, this is one area in which I totally agree. One of the saddest signs of our times today is the way in which men have taken the teachings of our Lord and twisted them away from their original meanings.

If one would take the time to read the second inaugural address, given on March 4, 1805, they would see President Jefferson state the following,

Strange words for one that so many proclaim did not believe in God and the Bible. It is my prayer that God would raise up more men of this calibre to help to turn our nation back to God while there is still time. Thomas Jefferson prayed a prayer to this effect on March 4, 1805, when he proclaimed a national prayer for peace.

You must admit that these are strange words for a man that so many claim did not believe is Jesus. However, as you know from the Holy Scriptures, all men have contending within them two natures, one godly and the other fleshly. Could it be that so many are simply seeing this manifested in the life of Jefferson and thus concluding that he was an unbeliever, when in fact, he is just exhibiting the same nature as you or I?

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. -Proverbs 14:34

These are interesting words indeed when you think of the matter of the historical revisionists that continually try to write God out of American history books. You know, the more I read, the more I see that Jefferson seems to be a believer who just had some ideas I do not agree with. Is not this true of all believers today also?

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. -Isaiah 1:4

He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him: -Proverbs 24:24

I know of people who are not only believers but even pastors who openly admit that they do not believe certain parts of the Bible. They still claim Christ as Savior, and I suppose this is just an area where they still need growth. The same is true for all of us, including the founding fathers, no doubt. In spite of this, however, President Jefferson did much to make our Christian nation what it is today. For instance, in April of 1806 he signed the Articles of War which stated, among other things that he

This would be an unusual stand indeed for an unbeliever to take. Moreover, on January 23, 1808, Jefferson wrote to Samuel Miller the following....

This statement made by the famous author of the phrase "separation of church and state", puts the entire idea of separation in a very different light from which most leaders try to mold it into today.

This again goes back to the difference between the church and Mystery Babylon. The church grows and exists through the free exercise of faith, which Mystery Babylon attempts to legislate all other beliefs out of existence. This is also the great danger that we all fight against, despite what historical revisionists might say to the contrary.

The clergy of his day called President Thomas Jefferson an antichrist. I have had modern day clergy call me things that are not dissimilar, yet I am a follower of Christ. In fact, if the truth be known, most churches today would not allow a John the Baptist or, in some cases, even Jesus Christ Himself to speak in their pulpits. Take the picture we see in Revelation 3:20. Here we see Jesus standing at the door, not of the unbeliever's heart, as some may assume, but of the church knocking on the door to be allowed in. This is indeed the case of many of our churches today.

The word "religion" appears in the New Testament of the Authorized King James Bible only five times. Once it describes the Pharisees (Acts 26:5) of which the Apostle Paul was one before he became a Christian. This was just one of many religions that persecuted the early church (Galatians 1:13-14). It was this religion that killed the early believers.

Many appear to be religious, while they are actually lost (James 1:16). Out of the five times the word religion is used in the Bible, in four cases it shows how evil the evil religions of this world actually are. Only once, does God use religion in a positive light and that is....

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. -James 1:17

An odd remark for an unbeliever to say the least, if Jefferson was indeed an unbeliever. I guess we have pretty well covered whether or not President Thomas Jefferson was a Christian or not. However, even if such is the case, God is still able to use unbelievers to fulfill His will. The Holy Scriptures are replete with such stories. If Jefferson is not a believer in God, then he would fall into this category. Take, for instance, how that the 57th Congress, voted in 1904.

Then there is also the letter that Jefferson wrote to Miles King on September 26, 1814 where he states the following.

In the end, we will not know the final fate of President Thomas Jefferson until we reach that abode ourselves and see if he preceded us there. I pray that he will be there. I pray that you will also.

O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. -Psalms 67:4

"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."-President Thomas Jefferson

"This is all the inheritance I can give my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed."-American patriot Patrick Henry

"My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances His disciples in asserting that He was God." -President John Quincy Adams

One of the major institutions used over the past few decades to endeavor to re-define what the constitution originally said has been the United States Supreme Court. The spirit of this court has changed greatly from the days of its founding. Once again, let us go to the words of the early Supreme Court justices to see what was the original spirit directing early court decisions.

"I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son, blessed be His holy name."-U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Jay

"I think the Christian religion is a Divine institution; and I pray to God that I may never forget the precepts of His religion or suffer the appearance of an inconsistency in my principles and practice."-U. S. Supreme Court Justice James Iredell

"I resign my soul into the hands of the Almighty who gave it in humble hopes of His mercy through our Savior Jesus Christ."-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Duvall

Indeed it is true that our government institutions have changed mightily since the days of the founding fathers. The question is how do we undo the damage done over the last century to their selfsame institutions.

In 1787, during the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin appealed that those involved should begin each session with prayer because:

In fact, the Bible was so important to the Continental Congress of the United States that their first official act was to authorize the printing of 20,000 Bibles for the purpose of evangelizing the America Indians. Thomas Paine would state the feelings of the nation at that time when he said,

Another good example of the times was the fact that, after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, a letter was sent by George Washington to Benjamin Franklin which stated....

There is an interesting footnote to history concerning Baptists and their feelings about the state church system of government. The incident occurred shortly after the Revolutionary War. One of the first questions put before the American Congress was whether there should be an established church in America. Several different bills were presented for different candidates for this state supported church. The main three being considered at the time was the Episcopal, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian churches. All other Christian groups contended that there should be no established church, but rather religious liberty for all, the Baptists being the largest and most vocal. The main spokesman for these groups was James Madison. Patrick Henry offered a substitute bill that there should be four established churches; Episcopal, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Baptist. When the first three churches saw that none could prevail, they all agreed to accept this compromise. This bill stated that each person taxed would have the right to say which of these denominations his money should go. The Baptists continued to fight against the idea, feeling that any combination of church and state was against the fundamental principles of the Bible. I will let historian J. M. Carroll finish the story.

The religious side of these times are also well show by the tombstone of Benjamin Franklin. "Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, the body of B. Franklin, Printer; like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be wholly lost; for it will as he believed, appear once more, in a new and more perfect edition, corrected and amended, by the Author." Many say many of our founding fathers, like Franklin, were unbelievers. I have always found it much more enlightening to get the truth directly from those whom we discuss, rather than count on the opinions of modern historical revisionists.

For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. -Isaiah 33:22

Many people do not realize that the Christian virtues upon which America was built did not end with the founding fathers and George Washington. The second President of the United States, John Adams, put his view of our Christian heritage quite simply. "Our Constitution was designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."

President John Adams would be the first president to live in the White House. His faith in Jesus Christ was truly one of the greatest hallmarks of his presidency. It was President John Adams who said,

In the closing days of his life, President John Adams would write a letter to his son, John Quincy Adams, in which he said,

His son would take this message to heart and would one day become the only man in America to become president whose father was a president. President John Quincy Adams gives us an insight into his heart of hearts with the following diary entry.

John Quincy Adams was our sixth president and the son of John Adams, our second chief executive. In those days, as opposed to today, our public officials were not ashamed to declare their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian heritage of our nation. He once admitted:

It was during the terms of both President Adams' that the second great awakening took place, just at the turn of the 1800's. Just preceding this great event in American history, in 1799, one of America's great statesmen, Patrick Henry, went to his heavenly reward. A little-known part of Patrick Henry's legacy to the American people are these words penned on the back of his Stamp Act resolves:

 This is indeed a far cry from the policies of our current administration. It would be truly wonderful to see our nation turn in repentance back to the God of heaven as it did in the early 1800's during the Second Great Awakening. Strangely enough, this great move of God began at, of all places, Yale University.

Dr. Dwight was not alone in his view of America. Unlike today, with public education's bias against Christianity, many educators of that day shared this view. One of them was another great American by the name of Noah Webster who stated,

Dr. Jedediah Morse, minister and "the father of American geography" assessed the decision the country faced at this time, and faces still, two centuries later.

It was with the help of men such as these that God would stop the moral decay happening in the United States just following their victories in the Revolutionary War. The Second Great Awakening would steer our nation back into a godly path once again. A path that would finally lead to war, as Christian America freed their slaves during the long and bloody Civil War. Today the unborn face the same danger as the slaves did over 100 years ago, as over 4,000 a day are killed by a multi-billion dollar abortion industry. What will God have to do to bring our nation back from this moral precipice. Only time will tell.

Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States, understood what it meant to have to face and deal with God's chastening in his life.

It was not only presidents who believed in God however. Even our Supreme court was much closer to God in our nation's earlier years than they are today. For instance, on May 13, 1824, former Chief Justice, John Jay, addressed the American Bible Society of which he was president:

Our founding fathers love for God's word was a wonder to behold also. John Adams, when writing to Thomas Jefferson, said the following:

James Henry, the Secretary of War under Presidents George Washington and John Adams, stated in 1800,

While many historical revisionists are out there today trying to remove God and His sovereign plan from our history books, in times past even foreigners who traveled to our shores could tell the godly attitude of our early forefathers. On July 29, 1805 the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville was born. In considering America, he once stated,

In fact, our early law books, a far cry from the legal system today, were so replete with references to God's holy word that at least one legal student was saved by merely studying for the bar. He would ultimately give up a promising legal career to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Charles G. Finney was the most inspired, and inspiring, evangelist in the first half of the 19th century. He taught that salvation was only the beginning of religious experience and that the proper test of love of God lay in overcoming one's self-interest and acting in a benevolent manner toward all humankind. The converts, preached Finney, began a new life in which "they have no separate interests. They set out with a determination to aim at being useful in the highest degree possible."

Our current situation in America today reminds me of some words of warning by another of our American ancestors. His name was Daniel Webster. His words were indeed prophetic when, in 1823, he said the following:

Webster was a lawyer, senator, and Secretary of State. He was also an early leader in the Whig party, and one of the greatest orators in American history. His feelings on Christianity were very outspoken also.

In 1825, the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument was laid, fifty years after that battle. Twenty thousand attended the ceremonies, among them the Marquis de Lafayette who eschewed the pavilion for distinguished guests and sat with the other veterans of the War of Independence. Declared the guest speaker, Daniel Webster:

American statesman Daniel Webster was one American who had a fascinating view of God and country,

One evening, enjoying a dinner with friends, Daniel Webster was asked what was the most important thought that ever occupied his mind. It was a startling question, and he took a moment before replying:

Webster was not only one of America's best know orators, but also one of the best lawyers and statesmen of his day. While speaking in 1837 of the Constitution, he stated:

There is a interesting story that occurred in 1833. A Wyandot Indian named William Walker wrote a letter to the Christian Advocate and Journal in which he described his encounter with four Indians, three Nez Perces and one Flathead, who had traveled east 3,000 miles to Saint Louis, because…

Would it not be grand if today, so many of our highly educated masses could latch on to this simpler yet powerful truth. God's word can change lives. It was not only native Americans that understood the importance of this either. Many of our leaders also understood the importance of the power of the Holy Scriptures.

In his preface to "The History of the United States", Noah Webster writes:

Even our early lawmakers had a deeply held understanding of our nation in relationship to our God. Daniel Webster, who was chosen by resolution of the Senate, as one of the five greatest senators in U.S. history, put it very well, when he proclaimed,

Let us all pray for the time when we, as a nation, will turn back to the faith of our fathers. It is still so surprising how little people really study the history of our nation and how deeply Christian its founders were. For instance, in Philadelphia where it faces Independence Hall, is the beloved symbol of America's freedom, the Liberty Bell. In its brief service it was rung for joy and for sorrow. It pealed in celebration of the Declaration of Independence, and it broke while mourning the passing of Chief Justice John Marshall in July 1835. Inscribed on its base are these words from Leviticus 25:10: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." It was so much plainer in days gone by, when our people were much humbler and nobler. God help us all to turn back to the time when our leaders and citizenry alike knelt before the feet of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

William Henry Seward was born on May 16, 1801. Secretary of State under Lincoln during the Civil War, he would arrange the purchase of Alaska in 1867. As vice-president of the American Bible Society, he declared in 1836:

Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. - Psalms 72:11

Godless men have taken the United States Constitution and corrupted it beyond measure and therein lies one of the keys to the problems we are facing today. The scripture even gives a reference to the basis of this problem in....

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. - Judges 21:25

The presence of a liberal media has also helped to create our current situation. While I am sure there are many godly people in the media, they seem to be in the vast minority as it seems to be ruled by those who oppose godly principles, as can be seen in the fruits of their labors, the movies and television programs of today. This is a far cry from what the leaders in this industry once believed.

In 1838, one of the most influential members of the print media was editorialist John L. O'Sullivan. He summed up the general optimism then prevalent in the country, and in the process coined the term "Manifest Destiny" when he wrote, "The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the obedience of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High." Quite a different view of America's future from that held by most media pundits today, don't you think?

This was also true of our national leaders at this time, just a little over a century ago. President Andrew Jackson died in 1845. When one of his friends asked if he was at peace with God, he responded:

Now Andrew Jackson had his shortcomings, as we all do, but it is always good to look back at a time when the leaders of our country were not ashamed to express their belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a topic that is becoming more and more politically incorrect as time goes on.

I find it interesting to note that one sign of a nation turning from God is that they elect ungodly leaders. This too is a part of God's judgment against us at the present, I am sure. I am reminded of a time when our nation, and its leaders were much closer to God than we are at this present hour. For instance, President John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary on July 11, 1846:

And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.- Revelation 18:13

One of the reasons that we have come so far from God today is our public education system. While I am sure that there are many godly people working within this system, it must truly be a burden to them to try to teach godliness to children, when the system they are working in seems so determined to oppose godly principles. As the Contemporary Christian singer Carman saids in one of his songs, we need to stop passing out condoms and start passing out Bible in our schools again. An early leader of America's media, Horace Greeley, put it well in 1852.

In 1843, an American leader by the name of Daniel Webster stated the following concerning our founding fathers.

Indeed Satan has launched his latest and most vicious attack against our nation over the last 40 years. Time will only tell what the future may bring for us. Let us pray that it will bring revival and a turning of our nation back to the God of the Bible.

I have been thinking of our current chief executive and how he compares with other leaders of the past. While modern politicians constantly have an ear open to the media and what they say is the current mood of the people, this is not what our earlier leaders listened to when making major decisions of state. Take, for instance, the following statement by an early American president.

"I frequently see my way clear to a decision when I have no sufficient facts upon which to found it. But I cannot recall one instance in which I have followed my own judgment, founded upon such a decision, where the results were unsatisfactory; whereas, in almost every instance where I have yielded to the views of others, I have had occasion to regret it. I am satisfied that when the Almighty wants me to do or not to do a particular thing, He finds a way of letting me know it. I am confident that it is His design to restore the Union. He will do it in His own time."

President Abraham Lincoln was unique among our leaders in the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, he was the only president who was saved while in office. It was as if God was preparing him for what He knew lay ahead.

Indeed his newfound faith would face some great testing during the following years, when our nation was literally torn asunder by the great Civil War that raged about him. Many times, he would spend long hours in solitude and prayer as he sought his Father's will in some many major decisions that would affect so many lives around him.

Three weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln was asked by a college president if the country would survive.

President Lincoln's words proved to be prophetic as we all know now. It is very sobering to think of how much our nation's leaders used to depend on God's guidance. As we have all, leaders and citizens, turned from God and replaced His holy counsel with our own wisdom, it is much easier to see how things like Watergate, Filegate, and the White Water scandal have become more and more common today. Our nation has come a long way from the time when President Abraham Lincoln said,

It is interesting to see, in American history, how God has used times of hardship to bring His people closer to Him. Two such instances are the American Revolution and the Civil War. Referring to the Revolutionary War for independence while addressing the New Jersey State Senate in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln said:

"I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made. And I shall be most happy, indeed, if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, for the perpetuating the object of that great struggle."

A far cry from the professional politicians of the modern era, don't you think? There were many heroes that God has raised up during such times. I think of Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Esther, David and myriads of others throughout history who have stood at their nation's darkest hour for the truth of God and His word. There are also countless unsung heroes down throughout the history of the church and the world who have, with God's aid, been able to turn seemingly hopeless situations into great victories for justice and good.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.- Matthew 24:6

Edward Schneider was such a young man. He was a young student at Philip's Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted at once and fought well, until he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Coal Harbor. As he lay dying, he said to his chaplain:

This is the type of faith and patriotism that we need today to turn the tide of darkness that has been sweeping over our nation during the last few decades. Let us pray that God will raise up many young men and women who will, like Edward Schneider, help to turn this nation back to God while there is still time.

In 1861, during the dark days of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called all Americans to prayer as,

The effects of the Civil War proved to be most telling on President Abraham Lincoln. He was literally caught in the crossfire of that turbulent time in more ways than one. His newfound faith was sorely tested during those dark hours. He made it clear that, regardless of the cost, he would see it through.

Everyone has seen the wonderful statue of President Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial. However, in the nation's capital there is another statue of President Abraham Lincoln worth seeing. It is a sculpture in bronze in the National Cathedral, of Lincoln kneeling in prayer. Gazing upon it, the visitor is reminded of what the President once told his intended secretary, Noah Brooks:

How much better off our nation would be today if more of our leaders realized that they stand the highest when they stand on their knees.

While you would think that these words would have come from some great pastor or evangelist, such is not the case. It came from another godly man in American history who was a military leader. His name was Robert E. Lee. General Lee knew the power of the two greatest weapons in our spiritual arsenal, prayer and the Bible. Is it no surprise that in Satan's latest attack against our nation, he found it necessary to first remove prayer from our public schools? Not to mention the many attacks he has launched against the Bible using these same public educators. This is quite a change from what our public education system once thought of the Book of books.

I never think of this time without remembering how that President Abraham Lincoln, like many other believers of that time, came to the conclusion that the Civil War was not so much a war freeing the southern slaves as it was indeed a judgment from God exacted on our nation for allowing this horrendous practice to continue for such a long time in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Robert E. Lee was as noble in defeat as he had been in victory. During the times of bitterness following the end of the war, Lee's spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness did much to heal the chasm between North and South. When a Southern clergyman spoke caustically in his presence of recent actions taken by the federal government, after a silence Lee said to him softly, "Doctor, there is a good old book which says 'Love your enemies.'" Then he added, "Do you think your remarks this evening were quite in the spirit of that teaching?"

It is an interesting fact of history that General Lee defended the south, although he never owned slaves, while General Ulysses S. Grant led the north while he owned slaves. Today it is another class of citizen, the unborn, who have been enslaved by the monstrous abortion industry of America. What judgment awaits us for the millions of Americans who have died by the abortionist knife? God help us to repent, as a nation, over this evil among us before it is too late.

It seems that some out there feel that, if Christians become more involved in our government, it would lead to a state church system. Some of the most evil governments in history, not to mention today, have been based on the false premise of the state church system. God also condemns this system. In the Bible, He calls this type of government Mystery Babylon. It was a Medo-Persian state church that threw Daniel into the lions' den. It was a Babylonian state church that threw the three Hebrews into the fiery furnace. It was also a Jewish state church that crucified our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When the Pilgrims, Baptists, and other Christian groups came to America, it was to escape the state church systems in Europe. The American Revolutionary War began when England tried to establish a state church in the colonies. If such a system was to even be considered in America, true, Bible believing Christians would be among the first to oppose it, and rightly so. On the other side of this issue, many Christians are very concerned about the fact that our nation has been slowly turning away from God over the last few decades. While many of us have been busy raising families, pastoring churches, doing missions work, and helping the needy, America has fallen victim to a long moral slide that has many citizens, including myself, extremely worried about the future of our nation and how this will effect us, our children, and in my case our grandchildren. Although God's people in the Bible opposed the state church concept, they were nevertheless very actively involved in the government of their nations. Joseph was a governor, Daniel an administrator, Esther a queen, David a king, etc. Jesus told us to render to Caesar. He also told us to be salt to the earth and light to the world. On behalf of believers everywhere, I simply wish to state that we want to be involved in the process of our government. I truly feel that no true American would want to deny that to anyone,simply because of their faith in God. In 1856, Horace Bushnell said that Americans,

Here, once again, we see reflected the view that our founding fathers used to make this nation great. It was the idea of establishing a Bible commonwealth, a nation based on the precepts of the Bible, with freedom of religion, and liberty and justice for all. All in all, our nation, as all others, will succeed or fail based on how closely we follow the mandates of God as given in the Holy Scriptures.

It was Mystery Babylon using the state-church system in Israel to crucify Jesus. Even though they may have been able to use the Roman army as their hit men, it did not make them any less guilty. Then, in many ways, we are all guilty of that death, because it was caused by the sins of us all.

When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people. - Psalms 105:13

This was not only the belief of the legislative branch alone. The executive branch believed in God at this time also. In December, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln stated:

Concerning the Pilgrims and the Puritans, we need to realize that the Pilgrims, Baptists, and others came to America in rejection of Mystery Babylon so that they could return to New Testament Christianity. The Puritans, on the other hand, were endeavoring to purify the Church of England. In other words, they were bringing Mystery Babylon over here with them. A cursory look at history reveals all of the tragedies that this caused. Many of our godly leaders of the past understood this difference.

These words were spoken by President Abraham Lincoln on May 30, 1863, in the midst of one of the greatest wars in the history of our nation. Even after his death, those left behind would speak of the virtues of this man. In 1865, in a memorial address concerning President Abraham Lincoln, Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives, recalled:

I truly feel that our nation is indeed in dire straits again today because we have forgotten the warnings of the past and of the Holy Scriptures. As far as I am concerned the more godly the leaders the more godly the nation. Many others down throughout the history of our nation feel this way also. When asked whether he believed if God directed the affairs of our nation, President Abraham Lincoln replied,

This godly leader was much more qualified than you or I to speak on what is best for our county. He not only spoke his beliefs openly but he laid down his life for them. Others alive at his time took careful note of his firm belief in God. On September 5, 1864, a group of black Americans from Baltimore, Maryland presented a Bible to president Abraham Lincoln. His response follows;

By Lincoln's own testimony, while he believed in God most of his adult life, it would be when he went to deliver the Gettysburg Address and saw the massive destruction there, that he became a Christian. Thus by the time of his second inaugural address, his perspective on the war as a whole had changed entirely.

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it mut be said, 'the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether'."

Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.- Luke 21:26

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.- Daniel 12:4

A recent stress management seminar that I attended here at the Sunday School Board illustrated this phenomena quite well. A recent study of the growth of knowledge throughout history shows this very dramatically. First you must take all the knowledge obtained from the beginning of time up until the time of Jesus Christ at the height of the Roman Empire, a total of 4,000 years, and give this body of knowledge a value of 1. It takes a total of only 1,500 years for all of the knowledge in the world to double. Following this period of time, the increase of knowledge would explode. One of the main reasons for this dramatic increase is one man who literally left his old world to discover a new one.

"I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous presence. For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics, or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied."-Christopher Columbus

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:- Isaiah 40:22

A good example of this is to take a moment to look at the technology of war. Think for a moment. What type of weapons were used in the Civil War? World War I? World War II? The Civil War was fought in the 1860's. World War I is fought only 50 years later. World War II is fought only 30 years after World War I. Yet the Civil War began with horses and calvary charges and World War II ended with nuclear warfare. Do you begin to see the magnitude of the change in mankind's knowledge in just 80 years? You can begin to see how stress has become a way of life for Americans and the world.

There are many kinds of stress in the world today, however. Many of you may remember Colonel Oliver North, the center of a firestorm that we now call the Iran-Contra Scandal. Many do not realize that Oliver North is a dedicated Christian. It was during these stressful days for him and his family that, although totally surrounded by federal security officers, a little old lady presented a small 3x5 card to the colonel. The words on that card, just like the words that so influenced Columbus came from the prophet Isaiah.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.- Isaiah 40:31

With all of this going on around us, is it any wonder that we feel fearful sometimes. God has an answer for that also in...

Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.- II Timothy 1:6-7

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.- Luke 21:27-28

A Christian nation is not made by legislation, but rather is a natural extension of the faith of the people. In fact, I feel that the people are not nearly as important as the object of that faith. For instance...

For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. - Psalms 96:5

Let us make it our prayer that God will raise up leaders like this for our nation once again, while there is still time. God save America. The destiny of America is best explained by another national leader who lived many centuries before our nation was founded.

All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. - Psalms 86:9

The editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant who was a major media mogul of his day, also understood how much the Holy Scriptures were linked to the founding of our nation. He once wrote,

Quite a difference from the attitude of most media today, don't you think? 'Tis a pity more people don't realize what God has done for us as a nation, but that, as you have said before, is one of the root causes of the problem we are facing today. If more people only knew what King David of Israel knew....

The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. - Psalms 113:4

An interesting 1905 Arkansas Supreme Court was quoted by Supreme Court Justice David Brewer in his lecture "The United States, a Christian Nation". The opinion rendered in the case of Shover vs. The State, 10 English, 263, included the following statement. "This system of religion (Christianity) is recognized as constituting a part and parcel of the common law."

Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901. He was a soldier, an author, and a Nobel Prize Winner. He led the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill to win the Spanish American War and free the Cuban people from a repressive regime. His feelings about Christians and citizenship was very different from the that of the historical revisionists that have endeavored to write God out of the American history books.

Many weighty responsibilities filled his hours, as it does for our Chief Executive today. While many in today's culture feel the need for psychiatrists, psychologists, and psycho-therapists to calm their fears in the hectic world of today, President Roosevelt found another outlet that allowed him to release the pressures that he faced while carrying out his office.

A fervent student of the Bible and of Bible prophecy, he looked at the world around him, as we changed from an agricultural to a cosmopolitan nation, and saw in it great opportunities and great dangers. It was not the trade deficit, foreign entanglements, or even the always looming possibility of war which concerned him most. It was the double-edged sword of progress.

It is very interesting to note that two forces that arose years later, Nazism and Communism, would prove just how accurate his assessment was. It is similar forces at work in our nation today that are endeavoring to turn us from the course God has set out for us as a people that we are currently having to contend with. Truly this was a man cut from the same mold as George Washington. He deeply understood just where the basis of our modern culture came from. It was not a godless, secular order that was set up by the founding fathers.

Little did President Theodore Roosevelt know just how prophetic his words would be as we face today exactly what he warned of in the earlier part of this century. God help us to raise up men and women of a similar heart, who will help turn our nation back to God while there is still time.

Woodrow Wilson was an educator, author, President of Princeton University, and Governor of New Jersey. He became our 28th President of the United States. On March 4, 1913, in his inaugural address, he proclaimed that, at that auspicious moment, he felt....

President Wilson was a devoted student of the Holy Scriptures. Speaking of his faith in the Bible and its affect on the American culture, he stated....

At a rally in Denver, Colorado, President Wilson would make a statement that was very prophetic when we look at how we, as a nation, have ignored its wisdom today.

He was invited, in 1913, to a very special ceremony at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site of the famous and decisive battle of the American Civil War. He asked a very important question of the audience that day. One which we need to ask of ourselves also.

I wish to leave us all to ponder this most important question, and pray that we will recognize the importance of it while there is still time.

That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance. - Psalms 106:5

Warren Gamaliel Harding was a newspaper editor, state senator, U.S. Senator, and became the 29th President of the United States. On March 4, 1921, he stated in his inaugural address....

Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President. He first took office when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. On January 20, 1965, in his inaugural address, he made reference to King Solomon and the prophet Isaiah, when he said....

The 37th President of the United States was Richard Milhous Nixon. On January 20, 1969, in his inaugural address, he proclaimed....

Gerald Ford became the 38th President of the United States following the Watergate Scandal which deposed Richard Nixon. He stated in his inaugural address on August 9, 1974....

Finally I wish to take a look at Jimmy Carter, our 39^th President. It was President Carter who would bring the term "born again" to the public eye. He would also, totally out of political character for most politicians, claim full blame for the failed attempt to rescue our hostages in Iran. In his inaugural address on January 20, 1977, he proclaimed his faith in God's word when he said....

While many of our national leaders, both past and present, have only mouthed these words to gain favor with the American people, others truly meant them from their hearts. It is important to note that all of these leaders felt that America's people were a people who believed and revered God and His word. Pray for a time when God will raise up again leaders who really do believe in God, and bring to the light of day the evil deeds of those who are only mouthing meaningless platitudes.

John Calvin Coolidge was a mayor, state senator, governor of Massachusetts, and vice-president under Warren G. Harding. In a message he gave in 1923 entitled "The Destiny of America", he proclaimed....

Speaking of our founding fathers in this address, he stated....

Upon becoming the 30th President of United States, in his inaugural on March 4, 1925, he stated his belief in our Christian heritage when he said....

In 1923, he gave a stern warning for the future of our nation that we should take to heart today. In it he gave a grave definition to the moral crisis that our nation is currently facing.

Thus we see the dilemma that faces us today. The blame for this I lay squarely at the door of the church. Before we can expect our nation to turn back to God, our churches must. If we cannot teach the pure and simple doctrines of the Bible, undiluted by the opinions of men, godly or otherwise, we cannot honestly expect any one else to ever take us seriously again.

Please pray for the time that the church in America will again hold high the torch that has been passed to us by past generations. If we do not, then what happens to America is totally our own fault.

Herbert Clark Hoover was a mining engineer and, during World War I, was the food administrator for the United States government. He became our 31st president and, in his inaugural address on March 4, 1929, he stated,

In 1943, as the specter of World War II became an ever-present danger, Herbert Hoover, along with several other national leaders, issued a joint statement addressing the concerns of that day.

With the war finally behind them, the new menace of atheistic communism was threatening the freedom of the world in 1950. In a radio broadcast on April 27, Hoover would once again reaffirm his belief in the forces which had made America truly the great nation it was at that time.

With all these forces opposing our nation during the early years of the twentieth century, it becomes obvious what many Americans, including godly leaders like President Herbert Hoover, knew was needed to turn our nation, or any nation, from the downward path and back to the God of our fathers.

If this wisdom would just be taken to our hearts today, we would begin to make much greater headway in turning our nation back to God.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt became our 32nd president as our nation was in the throes of the great depression. In his first inaugural address, on March 4, 1933, he made the famous statement that we still hear so often today. This statement becomes even more powerful when you get to hear, as Paul Harvey has so often said, the rest of the story.

One of the things that made Roosevelt so popular with the American people was his many radio "fireside chats" broadcasts that helped to strengthen so many during those dark days. During a radio broadcast in 1935, he stated....

During World War II, Gideons International printed multitudes of New Testaments that were given to our troops as they left for the service. The prologue to this Bible was written by President Roosevelt and was short and to the point as to why these Bibles were given out.

Pray that God will raise up a new generation of Christian soldiers, to help turn our nation back to the God of our fathers.

I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. - Psalms 108:3

Harry S. Truman was vice-president under President Franklin Roosevelt. Truman would become our 33rd president when Roosevelt died in 1945. President Truman would conclude his first address to Congress with these words.

On January 20, 1949, in his inaugural address, President Truman stated....

President Truman was a praying man. He would often take time alone to commune with God on some of the weightier matters of state. One of his favorite prayers was....

When asked about what caused America to become so great during the years following two World Wars, he stated his belief that it was because of our legal system and explained thusly.

If only our present legal system could attain to this level of jurisprudence, what a difference we would see in America today! Here again we also see an almost prophetic warning from one of our past Chief Executives. Let us pray that our nation will take this warning, and so many others that we have seen, to heart while there is still time left to turn our nation back to God.

Dwight David Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, Europe in World War II. He would become America's 34th President. It was President Eisenhower who would signed into law Joint Resolution 243, which added the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. This phrase was taken from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. His reason for supporting this action was, in his own words,

If only we, as a nation, could reclaim this truth today, it would make for a much brighter tomorrow for us all. It is our desertion of these historical facts that has put us in the sad place where we find ourselves today. President Eisenhower explained our heritage very simply and directly.

In his inaugural address on January 21, 1957, he stated....

President Eisenhower was a student of the Bible. He found its counsel comforting during many of the crucial times he faced as our national leader. Addressing this, he once said....

Pray that God would raise up again today, leaders both national and local, who would stand on their faith in God during times of crisis, such as President Dwight Eisenhower did. In this way, with prayers such as this, that we can all do our small part to help turn our nation back to God.

Probably one of the most popular Americans of this century has been President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Not only was he the youngest American ever elected president, but he was also a graduate of Harvard, a U.S. Congressman and Senator, but also a PT boat commander in World War II. He stated, in his inaugural address on January 20, 1961....

President Kennedy was also very active in the civil rights movement. His reason for this was clear.

It was during the Kennedy Presidency that the Supreme Court of the United States outlawed Bible reading and prayer in public schools, a practice that had been part of American education from the time of the founding fathers. We are still suffering from the effects of this ruling still today. Ever since that time we have been on a long moral slide away from the God of our fathers. It is a well known fact of history that President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, within a year of this fateful decision. What is not so well known is the concluding words of the speech he was about to deliver when he died.

Let us pray that we will take these words to heart, and pray for new leaders who will come forth to help us as we endeavor to turn our nation back to God.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. His concern for our country was evident when, in 1980, he said....

On October 4, 1982, per request by a joint resolution of Congress, President Reagan declared 1983 the "Year of the Bible". This resolution, Public Law 97-280, stated....

Being a student of American history, President Reagan had a very clear understanding of the original intent of the founding fathers, when he stated on January 25, 1984....

Concerning the long moral slide of our nation over the past few decades, President Reagan said, after the enactment of the "Equal Access Bill of 1984"....

President Reagan's concern for our nation and it's turning from God ran deep. While he did what he could to stem the tide, with both a liberal, left-leaning Congress and Supreme Court standing against him, his success was limited. In his 1988 National Day of Prayer Proclamation, he expressed these concerns, and what has proven throughout history to be the only remedy for such a situation.

If only the people of this great nation would open their hearts to pleas such as this, found both in our own history and in God's holy word, there is no limit to what would be achieved as we all begin to work together to turn our nation back to God.

George Bush was the 41st President of the United States of America. On May 3, 1990, he declared a national day of prayer, during which he stated....

In 1992, he would declare another national day of prayer, where he proclaimed....

One of the major events to occur during this presidency was the Persian Gulf War, in response to Iraqi leader Sadam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. This is a notable event as this king believes that he is the reincarnation of King Nebuchanezzar who took the nation Israel into captivity in the 6th century BC. The Middle East, and most notably the nation of Israel is the centerpiece of the end times scenario as given in the Holy Scriptures. Thus, here in the last days, God once again turns the attention of the world to Israel.

Very wise words indeed, spoken by one of the true geniuses of our century, George Washington Carver in 1939. One thing I always find interesting is the fact that some of the best statements about our heritage comes from some of the most unusual of sources. For instance, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren in Time magazine in February 15, 1954,

Many of us seem to forget, or never knew, the God of the Bible who made this nation great in its beginning. God also judges those nations who turn from Him, as King David tells us in....

Who smote great nations, and slew mighty kings; Nations such as ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome come to mind. More recent examples could include Germany and Japan. America needs to heed these examples lest we follow them. - Psalms 135:10

These are words that I feel people on both sides of the aisle in this discussion need to remember. Political correctness or religious zeal is no excuse for bad manners.

He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD. - Psalms 147:20

Other nations did not have God's word, thus they were not held to as high a standard as the client nation of Israel. Today this same thing can be said for America. Look at the evolution issue. What is taught in the public schools is a far cry from what happened, on Christmas Eve in 1968, when Astronaut Frank Borman, commander of Apollo VIII quoted from the book of Genesis, when he spoke the following words which traveled from the moon to the millions on the earth below;

President George Bush, in A Proclamation of a National Day of Prayer, stated on May 3, 1990:

O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. - Psalms 117:1

 A Lutheran church near Valley Forge was pastored by Henry Muhlenberg who noted that,

 "From all appearance, General George Washington does not belong to the so-called world of society, for the respects God's word, believes in the atonement through Christ, and bears himself in humility and gentleness. Therefore, the Lord God has also singularly, yea, marvelously, preserved him from harm in the midst of countless perils."

It would be many years after this that slavery would finally be destroyed in America but that day did finally come. I just wish that we, as a people, could turn back to God once again. Although they are few and far between, there are still some national leaders today who still realize this. One of them was President Ronald Reagan. His comments on the founding of our nation follows.

President Reagan also had the number of those historical revisionists and others who are trying to silence the truth of our nation's godly heritage.

While our nation has been in the throes of a long moral decay, we have still had leaders recently who were not afraid to speak out on the faith of our founding fathers. In 1974, Gerald Ford said,

Another twentieth century chief executive who was not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ was Jimmy Carter. His humility was something that I wish many of our leaders and citizens could do well to use more of, myself included. The following words of his strike a cord with me.

It is a simple matter to go to the writings of history to see what our nation was based upon. For instance, Bruce Barton an American business executive who lived from 1886 to 1967 shared his faith in this way.

Another one of our godly leaders from the past, President James Monroe, understood our history much better than many of us today.

We have lost this simple truth in today's modern culture. Such proclamations are deemed uncultured and, to some, downright dangerous. This is one of the sadder signs of our times. Let us pray that our nation will turn back to God.

There is often a vast difference between what Jesus said about Christianity and what the clergy often have to say on the behalf of religion. In fact, there is a vast difference between what religious leaders say, and what most believers believe according to a fascinating article about prayer entitled "Is God Listening?" which appears in the March 31, 1997 issue of Newsweek. A poll they took gave some very interesting results.

This does much to restore one's faith in our country, especially when you consider that Newsweek can be called anything except a Christian publication. When I saw this in the news rack, I bought a copy immediately. This is the first time in years I have bought one of these publications, but it goes a long way to show how the current climate in our nation is actually working to bring many people closer to God, while the media and religious leaders continue to drift farther from God, and the historical revisionists continue to endeavor to write the Living God out of our history books.

It is indeed good to know that, in our country, l have freedom of speech, unlike many nations under the control of Mystery Babylon's church-state systems. I am afraid that there you and I would be in deep trouble, if still alive at all. Former Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey made some interesting statements concerning this problem when speaking recently at the 50th anniversary of the Christian Life Commission.

He echoed the concerns of many Christians on this matter when he stated that....

I feel that in this speech, he has done a wonderful job of putting his finger on one of the basic problems in our culture. Judgment hangs heavy over our nation.

There are many people out there today who are concerned about how our nation has turned away from God in the past few decades. President R. Albert Mohler brings these points out very strikingly in a recent speech when he said,

Mohler is right. We face desperate times. Our culture has been on a long, downward slide for many years now, and there is no letup in sight. Where will it all end? There are two paths set before us. One leads to revival and recovery. The other to wreck and ruin. The choice is ours.

One of the things that has been of great concern to many believers is how Christian are currently being persecuted in other countries, where these Mystery Babylon systems hold sway. Nina Shea, director of the Puebla Program on Religious Freedom, recently addressed this selfsame issue.

A horrifying fact that is revealed by a World Evangelism Council Report just last year is that nearly 1,000 Christian believers a day are being killed around the world. This martyrdom is unparalleled in the history of the church. Meanwhile, our leaders take political contributions from the government of China where, according to Shea, thousands of Christians languish in gulags.

The ultra-liberal American media elite have been very careful to avoid mention of the religious persecution against Christians in the world today. By using them as your only source of news information, it is no wonder you don't know what is going on in this area. In fact, this like many other things, are simply the fulfillment of Bible prophecy concerning the last days. One example of this is....

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. - Revelation 6:9-11

Baroness Caroline Cox, president of the British branch of the Swiss-based human rights organization, Christian Solidarity International, and deputy speaker of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, maintains that the West tends to remain largely unaware of the magnitude of persecution and stangely silent on the issue. I watched a news special some time back, not on the major networks needless to say, that went into great details about the very situation that is mentioned here. The latest count of those who have died for their Christian faith in the Sudan is now over 1,500,000. In fact, the situation worldwide has become so serious, that the United States Senate is currently looking at ways to alleviate this tragedy. One fact that was brought out in this special is that more Christians have been martyred for their faith in the century than in all 19 centuries previous from the beginning of the Christian church.

 There are some books that document this historically that might be of interest to you and others. "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" and "The Trail of Blood" are two that cover this down through the centuries. There are also two books that have recently been written that gives the details of this in the current century; "Their Blood Cries Out", and "In The Lion's Den". These two books are available from the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, 901 Commerce Street, Nashville TN 37234. It is my prayer that the church in America will wake up and aid our persecuted brothers and sisters overseas.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. - Revelation 18:4-5

The Puritans also lived up to their name. It was their plan to purify the Church of England. Thus they brought the Mystery Babylon church-state system with them to America. Remember John's warning was to come out of her, not to try to purify her. For this reason you see the Puritans falling into the same trap that the Catholics and other major denominations fell into. Using the state to enforce religious principles. This type of sentiment is very different from what I am trying to explain here. Take for instance, what one of our presidents said just a few decades ago.

On January 20, 1961, the youngest president in American history gave his inaugural address. John F. Kennedy revealed his vision for our nation when he said, "The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

This is why I continue to pray for the time when our nation and its leaders will turn back to the God of the Bible.

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. - Isaiah 2:4

On January 30, 1835 President Andrew Jackson was nearly assassinated on the steps of the Capitol. A man fired two pistols at him at point-blank range, but while the percussion caps went off, they failed to discharge the bullets. Later, the pistols were tested and found to be in perfect firing order. When the King of England expressed concern over the incident, the President replied,

In 1845, in his inaugural address, newly elected president James K. Polk was very clear concerning his belief in the divine Providence of God, the father of Jesus Christ.

So, as you can clearly see here, those who took part in the forming of this nation had a very different view of things than you do. In fact, it is the view of historical revisionists who have tried to write God out of our history books who have put our nation at risk today.

While we all must admit that we do not currently have a Christian nation, I still feel that this was the goal of our founding fathers. It is too evident in their writings for it not to be so. Many Americans down throughout our nation's history have also come to the same conclusion.

For instance, on August 3, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge was sworn into office. He stated,

His statement here is almost prophetic. We have indeed, as a people, turned from the teachings of the Bible and will continue to see the decline of our society until we return to those selfsame beliefs. Finally I wish to mention Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren in 1954,

Amen to that. Today we are seeing firsthand exactly what does happen when we, as a nation, ceases to believe in the God of the Holy Scriptures. When prayer was replaced with a total rejection of God, and Bible distribution gave way to condom distribution, our nation began down a path that can only lead to destruction. Most Americans have believed, from the time of the founding fathers until now, that our nation is based on religious freedom, not secular humanism. The Christian Life Commission put it well in a recent legal brief which they filed in "Lee vs. Weisman" which states....

Religious Apartheid! I think I have finally run across a term that best fits the conditions in our nation today. Let us pray against the forces of religious apartheid, and for a restoration of the Christian foundations upon which our nation was built. The troubles we face as a nation today are in no way unique. Rather, they have continued, in one way or another, since God saw fit to put us here.

Many today say we are involved in a cultural war, if not as bloody, at least as intense as the one which gave birth to America. I feel that one of the messages shared during that time could well be given to us today, as the body of Christ tries to help bring our nation back to the Christian beginnings that made it great to begin with. After the port in Boston was closed by British troops in 1774, William Prescott wrote to the citizens of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The government that we currently live under was formed with the knowledge that man was wicked by nature. As President George Washington explained in his farewell address:

Many of the major problems we face today as a nation comes from the erosion of this precious three-way balance, as the judiciary has gotten into the business of law-making. Since 1962 our nation has been cursed with more and more radical, ungodly laws made, not by the people or the legislature, but by the arbitrary decisions of judges who seem to feel they do not have to answer to anyone for the decisions they make. Indeed we are living in days like those described in the book of Judges in the Holy Scriptures when they too suffered under the hands of unjust judges because....

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. – Judges 21:25

It is indeed heartbreaking to see how our public institutions, especially our schools, have made it known that God and the Bible are not welcome there, while humanism and historical revisionism are. Why are we surprised when children are so spiritually confused when we have refused to give them the direction that they so desperately need. This would not have been possible without courts losing touch with the founding principles that have made our nation great. It is up to us to turn our nation from the path of destruction down which we are currently descending. God's promise is clear in this matter.